Heart Tree Guards the Land (Towering Roots of the Jungle)

Frequently Asked Questions

Effect Rules

• If a "Spirits may prevent this on any/all boards" effect wouldn't do anything on a particular board it's affecting, can Spirits sacrifice Presence there anyway?
  Yes. The sacrifice is to prevent the rest of the Event Action from resolving on that board, not to prevent the actual results of that Event there.

  Choosing to sacrifice Presence this way isn't generally advantageous, but can be used to set up for a Power that uses destroyed Presence, like "Blazing Renewal." Some Spirits also get benefits when their Presence is destroyed or would be destroyed, like Volcano Looming High dealing Damage via its "Collapse in a Blast of Lava and Steam" special rule, making that sacrifice situationally useful even with no future plans for that Presence. And in particularly rare cases, Spirits can even use this to disable a normally-beneficial effect granted by their Presence.

  If the Event only applies to specific boards, you can't sacrifice Presence on other boards. For example, "The Center Crumbles" ("On Each Board with Invaders: Add 1 Blight to an Inland Land") doesn't even attempt to do anything on boards without Invaders, so Presence can't be destroyed to prevent the nonexistent Event Action there. On the other hand, Spirits can sacrifice Presence to prevent that Event on a board with Invaders but with no Inland lands (e.g., because "Weave Together the Fabric of Place" has merged all lands on that board into Coastal lands), since the Event still happens on that board despite it being unable to add Blight.
  Tags: On Each Board, Presence, Destroyed Presence, The Center Crumbles, 32 more...

General Play

• What happens if a piece winds up in a place or state it's not allowed to be?
  If the place still exists, then:

  • Pieces representing humans (Dahan / Invaders) are cleaned up to the closest legal land — this is not considered a move, is not an action, and does not trigger anything, it is simply a correction of the game state. This happens only once you are not in the middle of an action, and there are no pending triggered actions (i.e., after each action tree), just before checking for victory/defeat.
  • All other pieces remain where they are, but are considered out of play unless/until they're no longer in an illegal state.

  On the other hand, if the place was destroyed and pieces within it somehow survived the destruction, they all get cleaned up.

  This sort of thing can happen if pieces survive the sinking of a board (like Dahan via Infinite Vitality with threshold or Explorers via the Tsardom of Russia's A Sense for Impending Disaster), if an Ocean stops being a land (by Ocean's Hungry Grasp losing its Presence there) while other Spirits' Presence is there, or if Invaders/Dahan are left in the Ocean after an action but manage not to Drown in some way.

  If the nearest legal land is unclear, use your best judgment, based on physical distance if necessary. If there is literally no legal land to put the pieces in, return them to the supply; this is still considered cleaning up (not an action, not a move/remove/destroy, does not trigger anything).
  Tags: Pieces, Illegally placed pieces, Victory and Defeat, Action tree, 13 more...

Power Cards

• What happens if you give a Range boost to someone who's used Bargains of Power and Protection? Does it matter if they played Bargains on that turn or an earlier turn?
  In either case, for the turn the Range boost is active, it increases the "within Range 1 of your Presence" at which that Spirit affects Dahan. The boost wears off at the end of the turn, even though Bargains of Power and Protection doesn't.

  This includes range bonuses to "your Power Card" (e.g., Volcano Looming High), but not bonuses specifically for targeting.

  If a Range boost only increases the Range for a single Action (e.g., the Reach Aspect ignoring Range), then the farther-afield Dahan only grant Defend for one action of your choice (usually a single Ravage in one land).
  Tags: Range, Range Boosts, Bargains of Power and Protection, Reaching Grasp, 9 more...

Spirits and Innate Powers

• What happens if 1 or more Invaders/Dahan moved into the Ocean aren't successfully destroyed by the Ocean in Play special rule?
  Push them to non-Ocean lands (as part of the same action). If the Push also fails somehow (perhaps due to Isolate), the pieces will be left in an illegal state and cleaned up to the nearest land after all triggered actions complete – human pieces cannot remain in the Ocean between "action trees" (a primary action and all other actions following from it). Regardless, Ocean's Hungry Grasp does not get Energy for them.

  This isn't formally specified on Ocean's panel because it's virtually never relevant with just the core game, and spelling it out would both take up a lot of space and needlessly increase complexity / confusion-potential for players who only have the base game. However, it becomes very relevant when playing vs. The Habsburg Monarchy Lvl 4+ (Jagged Earth), which blunts "Destroy Town" effects; see this FAQ if you need details.

  The fact that the Push is part of the triggered action means that it can trigger further actions – e.g., "Melt Earth Into Quicksand" or "Call to Guard" in the land Pushed to – which cleaning up illegally placed pieces does not do.

  As a very specific edge-case, if the Ocean is also a normal land due to "Weave Together the Fabric of Place," humans can hang out there without trouble (until end of turn when the effect expires).
  Tags: Illegally placed pieces, Triggered Actions, Push, Durable, 13 more...
• Can Towering Roots of the Jungle replace Presence with its Incarna even if its Incarna is already on the island?
  Yes. The Incarna leaves whichever land it was in and ends up where the Presence used to be.

  This doesn't count as adding or moving the Incarna.
  Tags: Replace, Incarna, Heart-Tree Guards the Land (Towering Roots of the Jungle), Towering Roots of the Jungle, 0 more...
• Can Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares use "To Dream a Thousand Deaths" to generate Fear/Push Invaders that are protected by the Heart-Tree Incarna?
  Yes. Since "To Dream a Thousand Deaths" ensures that Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares doesn't even attempt to deal Damage or destroy any Invaders/Dahan/Beasts with its Powers, there's no destruction for the Heart-Tree Incarna to prevent.

  (This could have been ruled either way – "To Dream a Thousand Deaths" is structured in a way that makes clean ruling difficult. The ruling is partly for thematic/story reasons and partly so that players who already played it this way won't feel like they cheated.)
  Tags: Damage, Destroy, To Dream a Thousand Deaths (Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares), Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares, 2 more...